Obs. [f. TICKLE a. + -NESS.] The quality or state of being tickle; insecurity, instability; critical situation, precariousness; inconstancy; uncertainty.
c. 1390. Chaucer, Truth, 3. Suffise þin owen þing þei it be smal For horde haþe hate & Clymbyng tykelnesse [v.rr. tekil-, tikul-].
1549. in Tytler, Eng. under Edw. VI., etc. (1839), I. 232. Weighing as well the state of the things above, as also the tickleness of the country.
a. 1625. in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 182. I found such tickleness in the performance of such charges, that … my prayers will be full of fear.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 137. According to the tickleness of its lodging in the machina mundi.
